In game one of the Miami Marlins hosting the New York Mets series, the Marlins finally scored a run after a 27-inning drought.
In game two Marlins right-hander Pablo Lopez was set to make his 19th career major league start on Saturday. Lopez won his major league debut against the visiting Mets on June 30, 2018, allowing two runs in six innings of a 5-2 victory.
The beat went on for Lopez (3-5) who pitched seven innings and tied a career-high with seven strikeouts. It was a bounce-back performance for the 23-year-old righty after allowing a career-high ten runs in three innings in his last start on May 10 in New York.
Lopez held the Mets to one hit in the 2-0 win. Marlins win their second series of the season and first winning streak in nearly a month.
“You find out what a guy is made of,” Mattingly said. “He took a beating in New York. Nothing went right. There were two ways to go — either he was going to come out and pitch as if he were afraid of those guys or he was going to be aggressive.”
The Marlins won the series opener 8-6 on Friday to end a seven-game losing streak. The Mets fell a season-worst four games under .500
Steven Matz (3-3) was back in action from the 10-day injured list to make his first start since May 3 at Milwaukee. He allowed two runs and five hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two.
The beat goes on for the final and game three of the series.
The Mets RHP Noah Syndergaard (3-3, 4.74 ERA) tossed his second career complete game and first shutout of his career in his last start against the Marlins on Sept. 30, 2018.
For the Marlins, RHP Sandy Alcantara (1-4, 5.11) is 1-2 with a 2.92 ERA in four career starts against the Mets.
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